Jacob "Jack" Lew

(1955 - )

Jacob "Jack" Lew is a prominent and religiously
observant American Jewish civil servant.

Lew currently serves as President
Barak Obama's Chief of Staff and in January 2013, became his nominee
for the U.S. Treasury Secretary; and Lew formerly directed the U.S.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Lew was born on August 29, 1955 and grew up in New
York City, where he went to school through high school graduation.
He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1978
and received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1983.
Lew practiced law for a number of years following graduation and then
re-entered civil service life in February 1993 when he was tasked
as a Special Assistant to President
Bill Clinton. Lew's primary responsibilities in that role included
policy development and the drafting of the national service initiative
(AmeriCorps), as well as health care reform legislation.

After leaving Clinton's White House for a number
of years, Lew was nominated and confirmed as Director of the OMB in
1998. From 1998 to 2001, he led the Clinton
Administration's budget team and served as a member of the National
Security Council. During his tenure at OMB, the U.S. budget operated
at a surplus for three consecutive years.

From 2001 to 2006, Lew was Executive Vice President
and Chief Operating Officer of New York University (NYU), where he
was responsible for budget, finance, and operations. He also taught
public administration at NYU. From 2004 through 2008, Lew served on
the Corporation for National and Community Service Board and chaired
its Management, Administration, and Governance Committee. He was managing
director and chief operating officer of Citi Alternative Investments
(CAI) until January 2009. At CAI, he was responsible for operations,
technology, finance, human resources, legal and regional coordination;
chaired the CAI Operating Committee; and served as a member of the
CAI Management Committee. Prior to joining CAI in January 2008, he
was managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Global Wealth
Management.

Before joining the Obama
Administration, Lew co-chaired the Advisory Board for City Year New York and was a member of
the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project, and
the Tobin Project. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations,
the National Academy of Social Insurance, and of the bar in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

In early January 2013, President
Obama nominated Jack Lew to serve as the U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury to follow in Timothy Geithner, who was Treasury Secretary
during President Obama's first term. On February 27, 2013, the Senate confirmed Lew in a vote of 71 to 26.